Church Planter (Key Leader) – New Life Community Church Salford

Job Description – Church Planter (Key Leader) – New Life Community Church Salford

Salary:                                £12,000 per annum (this is pro rata of £24,000 for FTE)

Hours of work:                    19 hours per week– pattern by agreement with line manager. There may be opportunities to extend the hours if the candidate can contribute in other ways to the network

Normal place of work:         Principle location is Salford, but the role will also involve other locations within the Diocese of Manchester

Purpose

To work with the Project leaders to develop small to small community church plants.

Background Information

The Diocese of Manchester is the Church of England in Bolton, Bury, Leigh, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford and parts of Rossendale, Stockport, Tameside and Trafford. To find out more about the unique make-up of the diocese and its diverse activities, visit the website: www.manchester.anglican.org

The Diocese is currently engaged in delivering a strategy for Church growth. Part of this is to plant small scale (up to 50 people) community-based churches that themselves plant out others. These are to be planted in areas of significant deprivation in places both where there is a large diversity of languages spoken and where the demographic is predominantly English-speaking.

The Diocese of Manchester has established the Antioch Network – now a separate organisation / employer working closely with the Diocese – and recruits volunteer and paid church planters to evangelise, disciple, plant churches in diverse areas and train others to do the same.

They will work closely with an ordained pioneer minister who has worked in the UK and overseas, receiving training and enhancing their skills to plant and grow churches, encouraging others to do the same. Both ordained and lay staff will explore evangelism networks throughout the city and so plan the next generation of church plants. As these church plants emerge and multiply, the key leaders will move from church leadership into a mentoring and support role, for the volunteer congregation leaders, while continuing the work of evangelism and initiating church plants. The project, therefore, represents a passing on of values and the multiplying of church planters.

Accountability & Key Relationships

The post has been created as part of the Renewing Rochdale church plant project. The long-term roll out of this project will be undertaken by the Antioch Network (a Charitable Incorporated Organisation) which was officially registered with the Charity Commission in April 2019. The post will be line-managed by the Diverse Director with some oversight from the Growing Church Board and the Diocesan Programme Office.

Key Tasks

Key leaders will play three roles, which reflect the values and activities of the network.

a) Church planting This includes the stages of establishing the church team, setting out the rhythms of prayer, identifying appropriate spaces for meeting, exploring and introducing the patterns for evangelism and worship, pastoral responsibility for the church, as well as teaching the Bible in a way that can be easily understood across cultures. The early stages of the project will require a lot of practical work, including finding spaces for worship, evangelism and also community housing, if that is part of the plant. Once these skills and experiences have been gained, they can be passed on to other churches and plants. As the churches grow the key leaders will increasingly hand over responsibility for these matters to lay leaders of the church or plant.

b) Evangelism Evangelism means leading the new community in outreach: finding those who are seeking God, but also being bold and sometimes almost indiscriminate in disseminating the message. It means gaining relationships and understanding how the church can relate to people who are open. Again, it means finding the public spaces, and working on setting up the platforms. It also means identifying sites for potential new church plants and supporting outreach initiatives in other Network locations from time to time.

c) Inspiring and training others As church plants become better established, the key leaders will begin to form new teams. As they do, they will become facilitators, supporters and trainers for the new churches, rather than having the heavy practical involvement they had in the first church plants.

Closing Date and Interviews

Sunday 15th June 2025.

All applications and completed Declaration Forms should be submitted via email to antiochnetworkmcr@gmail.com Interviews will be confirmed closer to the time.